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Sorbet Royal '05 Draws to a Close

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050630-13
Release Date: 6/30/2005 4:43:00 PM

By Journalist 1st Class Kristina Brockman, Allied Press Information Center, Exercise Sorbet Royal '05

GULF OF TARANTO, Italy (NNS) -- The NATO submarine rescue exercise Sorbet Royal 2005 (SORO 05) wrapped up here June 30. For almost two weeks, more than 25 NATO and non-NATO countries provided people, ships, aircraft, rescue assets and submarines for the common goal of practicing for potential undersea disaster response.

Sorbet Royal is a live exercise held every three years, designed to train international rescue assets on a variety of scenarios so the international community will be capable of responding to a disabled submarine.

Each time the SORO exercise takes place, there are more nations involved than previously. This is the first year people from the Russian Federation have participated in the SORO exercise, though they have previously taken part as observers.

"This exercise has become much more complex, with multiple assets in the water at the same time," said Fred Bahrke, a retired submariner and Atmosphere Diving Systems (ADS) contractor with Oceanworks International, a participant in the exercise. "This makes the exercise much more realistic."

Participants included Sailors from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2, Detachment 20, based in Little Creek, Va. MDSU 2 worked from USS Grasp (ARS 51) for the entire exercise.

While there were some differences in technique between the countries represented, the similarities in the divers' professional "language" outweighed those differences.

"When you have divers on the bottom, you understand the task," said MDSU 2's master diver Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Don Grubbs. "I could see the other diver doing certain things, so it was very easy for me to assist him. Their diving procedures are very similar to ours, and it was very easy to understand...what was coming up next."

Throughout SORO 05, Russian divers worked with other nations’ divers to build international connections through their trade.

"It’s important to develop the international cooperation and verification that our systems work on other countries’ platforms," said Bahrke. "Submarines are a worldwide asset, and your home country may not be the closest to rescue you."

Building such connections was fairly easy, according to Russian scuba diver Warrant Officer Igor Lavrichenko, because “all divers in the world have the same personality.”

Like its own form of communication, the “language of diving” connected Lavrichenko and deep diver Warrant Officer Alexander Lapin with American divers aboard the Russian ship Shaktyor. The American divers performed air dives with the Russians, which was the first time the two nations’ military divers have worked together from a Russian ship.